A healthcare company owned by the big Tory has landed £53million in NHS contracts

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Tory great Lord Ashcroft controlled Medacs Healthcare when he was awarded 10 NHS contracts worth up to £53million between September 2021 and December 2022, contract notices revealed

Tory great Lord Ashcroft owned a healthcare company that won £53million in NHS contracts (

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A healthcare company won NHS contracts worth up to £53m in less than two years when it was controlled by top Tory Lord Ashcroft.

Medacs Healthcare won 10 sole-source NHS contracts during the period, according to contract notices published from September 2021 to December last year.

At the time the deals were signed, Medacs was owned by the Impellam Group, ultimately controlled by former Conservative Party Deputy Chairman Lord Ashcroft.

A Labor source said: 'A Tory donor's business profited from the NHS staffing crisis his party created. It stinks.' Medacs - which also won a £350million government contract during Covid - is a leading healthcare workforce company.

Our analysis of public records shows that the company has won three contracts, worth a total of £10.5million, to provide staff to County Durham and the Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

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A Labor source said the revelation of the contracts "stinks" (

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He won a contract in November 2021 - worth up to £36m over three years - with York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

A spokesperson for the trust explained that the contract, to provide locum doctors, was awarded "through a competitive bidding process".

Other contracts included three agreements with Norfolk and Norwich Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, two with University Hospitals of Leicester and one with Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

The accounts of Medacs Healthcare plc at the end of 2021 indicate that Ashcroft was the ultimate controlling party of Impellam Group Plc, with "influence over more than 50%, but less than 75%, of the shares and rights vote".

However, Impellam Group sold part of its business, including Medcas, to a private equity firm this year. Impellam said none of its non-executive directors, including Lord...